Turning bars are used in machines that treat or process web-like material for turning or turning around a web or simply to deflect the web in relation to its direction of delivery, e.g., by 90°. Prominent examples of such machines are web-fed rotary printing presses to which the present invention also preferably pertains. To make it possible to increase the flexibility in bringing together a plurality of webs, whose definition will also cover strands of a web cut lengthwise below, or to change only the new direction in the case of a simple change in direction, the turning bars of an arrangement comprising a plurality of turning bars or only individual turning bars of the arrangements or optionally also only a single one of the turning bars can be shifted. The property of shiftability means that the turning bar in question can be moved from a starting position, which it assumes in the plane of the web, into a new position in the plane of the web, in which it points in the direction of delivery at a different angle than in the starting position. In general, turning bars of web-fed rotary printing presses point at an angle of 45° to the direction of delivery of the entering web and are turned or pivoted by 90° during the deflection, so that they point at an angle of 135° to the direction of delivery of the entering web after the deflection.
The shifting of turning bars causes problems especially in web-fed rotary printing, toward which the present invention is preferably but not exclusively directed. In web-fed rotary printing presses, the turning bars are used to bring together a plurality of webs. A plurality of turning bars are often accommodated in such an arrangement in a compact manner in a very small space. When the press is changed over from one printed product to another printed product, e.g., from one newspaper product to another newspaper product, a plurality of turning bars and possibly all turning bars of the arrangement must be shifted in order to adapt the arrangement to new web paths. The configuration is time-consuming and therefore expensive last but not least because of the poor accessibility to the individual turning bars.
Turning bars that can be shifted automatically, as they are known from, e.g., DE 43 11 437 A1, eliminate these drawbacks, but they are associated with a great mechanical and control engineering effort. A plurality of motors are needed to shift a turning bar, and a movement of the turning bars in relation to two axes of movement, which movements are generated by the motors, must be coordinated with each other. A corresponding effort is also needed for the mounting of the turning bar.